...outstanding tax havens in the Central America region. The offshore jurisdiction of Panama has a large client base with investors from all over the world. Panama has a booming financial services sector which provides superior services such as the incorporation of International Business Companies, offshore banking, the formation of Panama Foundations and Trusts, Panama insurance the registration of boats and vessels among other services. Tax haven Panama is a pure tax haven which offers a tax free environment to clients. Panama developed as an offshore tax haven by putting very strict legislation in place to regulate its offshore and financial sectors. The passing of modern and progressive legislature has made the Republic of Panama a very secure and stable offshore tax haven. Panama as a tax haven imposes no taxes on offshore business companies who engage in no business operations in the jurisdiction. One of the characteristics of Panama offshore legislation which puts the jurisdiction way above the competition is that offshore business companies are allowed to carry out is business operations both within and out of the offshore jurisdiction. Most offshore jurisdictions available in the world today prohibit International Business Companies (IBCs) from doing business in the country of incorporation. Panama offshore corporations who do no business in the jurisdiction will pay no corporate and income taxes or local taxes. Panama offshore companies pay no withholding tax, capital gains...
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...Virgin Islands: of 42,300 Japan: 37,100 Korea: 33,200 3. British Virgin Island Gate Disclosure(2011) * 260 Gigabytes(Amount of 500,000 Books with 500 pages) of whistle blowing information delivered to Gerald Ryle, * Took two years to investigate the whole data with International Consortium of Investigative Journalists * Publicly disclosed the information while also using crowd sourcing to seek for help * Thailand’s ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s wife Philippines’ dictator Ferdinand Marcos Russia’s vice Prime Minister Yuri Petrovich Trutnev’s wife Malaysia’s ex-prime minister Mahathir bin Mohamad’s son Korea’s ex-president’s son Jeon Jaeguk ( http://offshoreleaks.icij.org/) 4. FACTA( Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) http://www.it.co.kr/news/mediaitNewsView.php?nSeq=2598529 * 2014년 7월 * 미국을 제외한 다른 국적의 금융회사가 미국 시장에 진출하거나 활동할 때, 금융사가 보유한 미국 국적자의 계좌(5만 달러 이상)를 미국 국세청(IRS)에 신고해야만 한다는 법 * 이행하지 않을 경우, 타 국적 금융회사는 미국시장에 투자해 지급받은 배당 및 이자 등의 30%를 벌금으로 내야 함 5. OECD 계좌정보 공유 64개국 참가 http://news.mk.co.kr/newsRead.php?year=2014&no=707652 * 7일까지 프랑스 파리에서 열린 OECD 각료회의에서 각국 재무장관들은...
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...Tax Havens pull up socks in ‘transparency’ era The great ‘subprime’ crisis has had its share of fallouts over past 24 months; yet there is a silver lining emerging from under the dark clouds which has the world order gearing up for a brand new era of financial discipline and enhanced regulation. Ironically, one of the positives borne out of the recent economic upheaval has been staggering focus on ensuring robust transparency standards in tax matters. Before delving further into how tax transparency and information exchange are critical for sorting financial disorder across economies, let me try and explain the concept of ‘money laundering’ and how the absence of strict standards in tax discipline have abated this menace. This also helps putting in perspective the role that the international tax policy, in tandem with other non-tax measures, plays in combating tax evasion, whether with or without aid of money laundering. What’s the color of money!! Money laundering is loosely used to describe ‘washing’ of unaccounted or illicitly sourced money through a cobweb of complex financial transactions, usually involving more than one jurisdiction. The objective of the process deployed to ‘clean’ the money is to hide either the ownership or the destination of such funds. A typical ‘laundering’ scheme could see three stages: a) Placement stage – at this stage, the objective of stakeholders is to move the illicit funds away from source location; sources of such funds can be...
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...companies (MNCs) you are subjected to a tax. Certain offshore jurisdiction around the globe offers lower tax rates and other tax features. It is designed to attract domestic and foreign investors seeking an opportunity to game the tax code and maximize profits. The Canada Revenue Agency has defined Tax Havens as jurisdictions with no tax, or very low rates of taxation; strict bank secrecy provisions; a lack of transparency in the operation of its tax system, and a lack of effective exchange of information with other countries. As shown in (Desai, Foley, and Hines Jr 2004), examples of such Tax Havens include Ireland, Luxembourg, Singapore, and various Caribbean island nations in America. According to Tax Justice Networks 2012 report, approximately USD $21 trillion to $32 trillion is sheltered from taxes in unreported Tax Havens worldwide. Canada has suffered tax revenue loss of $7.8 Billion annually as a result of Tax Havens (Canadians for Tax Fairness [CTF], 2013). In 2007, US president Barack Obama and his Senators C.Laevin and N.Coleman noted “Offshore Tax Havens have declared economic war on honest U.S. taxpayers”. Apple is among 82 of the top 100 publicly traded U.S. companies that operate subsidiaries in Tax Haven jurisdiction as of 2012 (U.S.PIRG, 2012). Every dollar in taxes that MNCs and top tier wealthy individuals avoid by using Tax Havens must be balanced by those honest taxpayers paying higher taxes. Every contribution in tax is reflected in our infrastructure...
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...What is tax haven? Why are all tycoons so crush on them? In January 9, 2015, Cheung Kong Holdings Limited announced the restructuring arrangement of combining Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa to form a new listed company: “CK Hutchison Holdings Limited”. This newly established company is incorporated at Cayman Islands (SCMP, 2015) which has been commonly known as “tax haven”. As the name implies, tax haven is a place where levy taxes at a very low rate or even not at all to companies registered there. It has been an interesting phenomenon that most of the largest corporations in the world, they are not registered at the place where they operate their major business or make most of the profits. Indeed, how is this mechanism works? How could the multi-national corporations in the world transfer their profits made all over the world to these tax havens to avoid tax? Advantages of tax havens If we look at the figures provided by HKEX in 2013, 724 out of 1602 companies listed in Hong Kong Stock Exchange market are incorporated in Cayman Islands (881903, 2015). This has indicated that it has already been a common practice for listed companies to be registered in these offshore financial centre. Take Cayman Islands as an example, being one of the most popular tax havens in the world, not only it has a no profit tax levied, but also it comes with much looser company law and other financial regulations. For the investors who want to register a company in Cayman Islands...
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...A Tale of Two Londons Who really lives at One Hyde Park, called the world’s most expensive residential building? Its mostly absentee owners, hiding behind offshore corporations based in tax havens, provide a portrait of the new global super-wealthy. BY NICHOLAS SHAXSON Up until the 18th century, Knightsbridge, which borders genteel Kensington, was a lawless zone roamed by predatory monks and assorted cutthroats. It didn’t come of age until the Victorian building boom, which left a charming legacy of mostly large and beautiful Victorian houses, with their trademark white or cream paint, black iron railings, high ceilings, and short, elegant stone steps up to the front door. This will not be the impression a visitor now gets as he emerges from the Knightsbridge subway station’s south exit. He will be met by four hulking joined-up towers of glass, metal, and concrete, sandwiched between the Victorian splendors of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, to the east, and a pretty five-story residential block, to the west. This is One Hyde Park, which its developers insist is the world’s most exclusive address and the most expensive residential development ever built anywhere on earth. With apartments selling for up to $214 million, the building began to smash world per-square-foot price records when sales opened, in 2007. After quickly shrugging off the global financial crisis the complex has come to embody the central-London real-estate market, where, as high-end property consultant...
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...The world is a constant changing place, changes occur all the time; some expectedly and others unexpectedly, some of the changes have had a huge impact on the way that man lives life. One of the changes in the world that has a strong bearing on man’s life is globalisation, it helped change the way man consumer’s products and interacts with his surroundings. Globalization is the process of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas and other aspects of culture (Al-Rodhan, 2006). Advances in transportation, such as the steam locomotive, steamship, jet engine, and container ship, and in telecommunications infrastructure, including the rise of the telegraph and its modern offspring, the Internet, and mobile phones, have been major factors in globalization, generating further interdependence of economic and cultural activities (Albrow,1990). The concept of globalization 'emerged from the intersection of four interrelated sets of "communities of practice": academics, journalists, publishers/editors, and librarians (Paul,2014). In 2000, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) identified four basic aspects of globalization: trade and transactions, capital and investment movements, migration and movement of people, and the dissemination of knowledge(IMF,2000). Further, environmental challenges such as global warming, cross-boundary water and air pollution, and over-fishing of the ocean are linked with globalization (Bridges,2002). Globalizing...
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...OFF SHORE FINANCIAL CENTRES Commercial Law Irene González Campos ZAGREB SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT Content DEFINITION 3 HISTORY 3 CHARACTERISTICS 4 REGULATION 5 CONCLUSION 6 References 7 DEFINITION First of all, it needed to be said that a financial centre is defined as a city or district that has a heavy concentration of financial institutions, that offers a highly developed commercial and communications infrastructure, and where a great number of domestic and international trading transactions are conducted (Business Dictionary, n.d.). London, New York, and Tokyo are the world's premier financial centres. It may be distinguish two types of financial centres: those such as London or New York, which are ‘international financial centres’ and which are excluded from the definition of extraterritorial centres. These latest are called ‘Offshore financial centres’, where the activity takes place outside the residence of the natural person. Despite its name, the off-shore centres are not necessary islands, although several insular jurisdictions have been established as such. First of all, an off-shore centre is a small, law-taxes jurisdiction specializing in providing corporate and commercial services to non-resident offshore companies, by offering: i) Liberal legislation regarding financial transaction ii) Very low taxes rates Therefore, off shore companies are those legal entities incorporated and registered in an offshore financial centre...
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... Role in International Tax Policy A Research and Policy Brief for the Use of the NGO Committee on Financing for Development Hamrawit Abebe, Ryan Dugan, Michael McShane, Julie Mellin, Tara Patel, and Linda Patentas Graduate Program in International Affairs, Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy, The New School March 7, 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY BACKGROUND AND PERSPECTIVES BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS THE OECD, G77, G20, AND EU ON UPGRADING THE UN TAX COMMITTEE KEY INSTITUTIONAL PLAYERS ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST A UN TAX BODY 3 4 8 12 17 REFLECTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OECD AND UN TAX COMMITTEE GLOBAL TAX POLICIES POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS 20 28 38 APPENDIX GLOSSARY AND ACRONYMS REFERENCES 44 48 52 2 Executive Summary The report provides an analytical view on the role of the United Nations in tax policy, highlighting the interventions made by and challenges to key players in attempts to streamline global tax cooperation. The first section of the paper provides a background on the importance of tax related issues, emphasizing its importance within the Monterrey Consensus. Debates are introduced between two key institutional players regarding global tax cooperation, the OECD’s Committee on Fiscal Affairs and the UN Tax Committee. Views from key players the OECD, Group of 77, Group of 20, and European Union are addressed in the areas of international tax cooperation, the inclusion...
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...by the Tax Office to divulge the details of customers with offshore structures. ''We recently complied with an order to provide the ATO with the details of all customers with a connection to Australia in various offshore jurisdictions,'' said Stephen Ries, a spokesman. Ashurst (formerly Blake Dawson) says it is its clients' responsibility to ensure they're meeting their tax obligations. ''Our firm actively advises our clients to comply with all applicable taxation laws and regulations,'' said spokesman Glenn Taylor. ''Some clients will establish international structures for a wide variety of legitimate business reasons and, on occasion, they seek our help to assist with this,'' he said. But confidential documents reveal that the secrecy of offshore accounts was paramount. File notes for the late John Anderson, a senior partner with accountancy firm KPMG, reveal his obsession with secrecy. Because of his position, ''he did not want at any stage for there to be a connection between himself and the trust,'' a Portcullis TrustNet file note reveals. ''We can assure him that his records or his confidentiality would never leave these offices.'' Mr Williams blamed accountants and lawyers for making such arrangements possible to begin with. '''I am going to focus in on those people who have got them into it in the first place and enabled this. ''I am going to target the facilitators.'' Leaks help untangle web of offshore havens and those using them Richard Dukes, a tax specialist...
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...1.1 INTRODUCTION Offshore bank is a bank that located outside the country of residence of the depositor. Offshore banking has often been related with the underground economy and organized crime, via tax evasion and money laundering; though legally offshore banking does not prevent assets from being subject to personal income tax on interest. Even though, offshore banks may decide not to report income to other tax authorities, and have no legal obligation to do so as they are protected by bank secrecy, this does not make the non-declaration of the income by the tax-payer or the evasion of the tax on that income legal. September 11, 2011 onwards there were many calls for more regulations on international finance, in particular concerning offshore banks, tax havens, and clearing houses such as Clear stream, based in Luxembourg, being possible crossroads for major illegal money flows. These attempts have been criticized at regulation by defenders of offshore banking. They claim the process is provoked not by security and financial concerns but by the desire of domestic banks and tax agencies to access the money held in offshore accounts. They mention the fact that offshore banking offers a competitive threat to the banking and taxation systems in developed countries, suggesting that Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries are trying to stamp out competition. There are many advantages as well as disadvantages of offshore banking. Offshore banks provide...
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...into other jurisdictions, most particularly tax havens, to lower their overall rates of tax, what are some of the measures that can be adopted to prevent such revenue loses? A tax haven is a state or a country or territory where certain taxes are levied at a low rate or not at all while offering due process, good governance and a low corruption rate. This is another important technique where the multinational companies can reduce their tax liability. If a company wants to expand and conduct their business in the country where the tax rate is very low or no tax rate, then they can reduce their tax liability to zero or very minimal amount. Tax havens are an internal fight as tax jurisdiction is an integral part of sovereignty and with this in mind, we should consider the measures usually used by states in order to prevent the use of tax havens: general avoidance provisions, the establishment of foreign exchange control and mandatory withholding of tax on transfers abroad, the creation of provisions against base companies, specifically by attributing income earned by such companies to the resident partners who control them, as well as the introduction of legislative giving powers to the tax authorities to adjust taxable profit by reason of special relations with another taxpayers. Tax havens make it more expensive for developing countries to collect taxes, lead to inefficient use of resources, undermine the workings of the tax system and make it possible for power elites...
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...increase in cross border transactions in the era of globalised world there has been increase in the number of cases tax evasion & avoidance. The problem of tax evasion in developing countries is therefore exacerbated, where evasion even by a wealthy few can have a comparatively large impact. The revenue needs of developing countries, in combination with the severity of corruption, tax evasion and fraud in many developing countries, highlight the importance of increasing global transparency concerning the location of untaxed wealth. Globalization and the liberalization of economic activity, resulting in the exponential increase in cross border commercial and financial transactions, has in effect converted the private sector into a world without borders. This has created a major problem for national tax authorities because globalization in the private sector has not been accompanied by similar changes in the reach and enforcement powers of national tax authorities. 1.2 In confronting the impact of globalization and liberalization of economies, national tax authorities face several problems. Some of them are illustrated below: 1. National tax authorities has administration of one national government. 2. There is no concept of International tax administration yet. 3. There is a traditional legal rule that one government does not enforce the tax laws of other governments. 4. Bank secrecy and other confidentiality laws (“de jure bank secrecy”) in many jurisdictions...
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...This is so shocking.. ..If black money deposits was an Olympics event.. India would have won a gold medal hands down. The second best Russia has 4 times lesser deposit. U.S. is not even there in the counting in top five! India has more money in Swiss banks than all the other countries combined! Recently, due to international pressure, the Swiss government agreed to disclose the names of the account holders only if the respective governments formally asked for it.. Indian government is not asking for the details... ..no marks for guessing why? We need to start a movement to pressurize the government to do so! This is perhaps the only way, and a golden opportunity, to expose the high and mighty and weed out corruption! . Please read on..and forward to all the honest Indians to.. like somebody is forwarding to you... and build a ground-swell of support!for action ! . Is India poor, who says? Ask the Swiss banks. With personal account deposit bank of $1,500 billion in foreign reserve which have been misappropriated, an amount 13 times larger than the country's foreign debt, one needs to rethink if India is a poor country? DISHONEST INDUSTRIALISTS, scandalous politicians and corrupt IAS, IRS, IPS officers have deposited in foreign banks in their illegal personal accounts a sum of about $1500 billion, which have been misappropriated by them. This amount is about 13 times larger than the country's foreign debt. With this amount...
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...Ernst & Young EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Ernst & Young commonly referred as EY, is one of the Big Four professional services firms along with Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG Ernst & Young is a multinational professional services firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom and was the third largest professional services firm in the world by aggregated revenue in 2012. The firm has employed 167,000 people and has more than 700 offices across more than 140 countries, providing assurance (including financial audit), tax, consulting and advisory services. In FY 2012, EY earned a record of $24.4 billion USD in revenue, ranking the third among the Big Four, after PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte, ahead of KPMG. Ernst & Young offers its services to companies in a vast range of industries, including asset management, life sciences, mining, media and entertainment, retail, technology, and hotel and leisure. The company's financial reporting segment offers an IFRS/GAAP comparison so companies can compare and contrast the international and US accounting standards. The group's members firms are organized in four geographic areas: Europe, the Middle East, India, and Africa; the Americas (including Ernst & Young LLP); Japan; and the Asia/Pacific region. Ernst & Young is increasingly focused on the emerging markets, which have seen more rapid economic recovery than the developed nations. The company sees the trend of growth in the emerging markets as one that...
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